News digest bole, Nunn urge slow action on military ban of gays WAS HINGTON—Congressional leaders urged Presidcnt-eleci Clinton Sunday to go slow on overturning the military’s ban on homosexuals,argu ing that sudden action would create a furor in Congress and could endanger lives in the armed forces. “He ought to put it on the back burner,” Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas said on NBC TV’s “Meet the Press.” “I can’t give him any advice ex cept to go slow,” Dole said. “There are other things you can do by execu tive order that wouldn’t blow the lid off the Capitol. I think this one might come close.” Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Com mittee,appearing onCBS-TV’s“Facc the Nation,” said, ”1 think weeughtte proceed very cautiously.” “If you did ilovemight, I’d fear for the lives of people in the military themselves,” Nunn said. UI think there could be some ver\emotional feel ings. So I would prefer that it be stretched out over a period of time.” N unn, Dole and Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell of Maine, who appeared with Dole on the NBC panel show, said congressional action would be required to amend the Uniform Codeof Military JusticcevenifClinton did issue an executive order changing the policy. “I’d be surprised if he won that vote,” said Dole. Mitchell said, how ever, “I think the governor will be supported in that because I think he -will do n uv a sensible and prudent way.” The Arkansas governor said Wednesday in Little Rock that he intends to consult with military lead ers about “the mechanics” of a change in policy. He did not say when this would occur. “I don’t think (homosexual) status alone, in the absence of some destruc tive behavior, should disqualify people” from serving in the military, the president-elect said. A federal judge in Los Angeles reaffirmed on Tuesday his order that the Navy reinstate a homosexual sailor, but did not rule on whether the mili tary ban is constitutional. The sailor, Petty Officer 1st Class Keith Meinhold, who has returned to duiyr said tbe c£feci ofachangeiiL policy on the behavior of gays in the military would be “a big fat nothing.” “The only difference would be that we would no longer have to look over our shoulder,” Meinhold said on ABC TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley.” Former Army National Guard Col. Margarcthc Cammcrmeyer, who ac knowledged being a lesbian when questionedduring a security check to attend the war College, said, “I don’t think it’s like suddenly the military is going to disintegrate.” Adm. Thomas Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dissented, saying, “Sooner or later you’re going to have men kissing each other and hugging and whatever _,imdlhe other sailors or soldiers or Marines or airmen would see it, and they would begin to give them names. Then, the first thing you know, there would be a fight.” “I defy you to find a military man who has had the responsibility of train ing a unit and participating in combat that does not agree with me,” Moorer said. Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman said that “homosexual activ ity is absolutely incompatible with life aboard ship and life in the mili tary” but “a person’s orientation and . . . and what he does on his own private time shouldn’t be the purview of Big Brother and of the govern ment.” French race to save Somali ship SAN‘A, Yemen — A French vessel loaded with emergency supplies of food and water raced Sunday to aid about 3,000 starving Soma lis aboard a ship in the Arabian Sea. But the rescue ship was not expected to link up with the refugee-laden cargo vessel, headed to Yemen, until Monday. Sources in Yemen who spoke on condition of anonymity said they feared as many as 100 children may already have died of starvation or thirst. Meanwhile, in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a clan leader continued to demand that U.N. troops withdraw from the interna tional airport, which they began guarding on Tuesday to protect planes carrying relief food and medicine. About 1,000 supporters of Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, the clan warlord whose forces control much of southern Mogadishu, marched through the city shouting slogans such as “We don’t want foreign troops.” Unidentified gunmen from another clan opened fire on the demonstration near the air port but no injuries were reported. I Thousands of Somalis have fled clan fight ing and a famine in their country that has killed at least 300,000 people since January. Two million more are said to be on the verge of starvation. A steady flow of refugees in small boats has headed north to Yemen, where United Nations officials have fed and sheltered them. In Geneva, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the cap tain of the ship carrying the latest group of Somalis made a desperate appeal for water in a radio conversation with a French plane. Spokeswoman Sylvana Foa said the 1,600 lon M.V. Sumaal was “crammed” with people and was running out of fuel. " “There is a serious sanitation problem,’’she said. “The ship is overloaded and it’s going real slow.” Yemeni authorities have agreed to accept the thousands of refugees who have fled across the sea, prov ided the U .N. refugee agency lakes care of them. There are now an estimated 62,000 Somali refugees in Yemen. -1 The Public is Invited to Attend the Karl H. Nelson Lecture Series presentation Successful Transition or Revolution? First hand reports on current economic conditions and changes in Russia and selected Eastern bloc countries by Dean Gary Schwendiman and faculty members of the College of Business Administration Universtiy of Nebraska-Lincoln who have recently returned from U.S. Agencies for International Development missions Please make breakfast reservations by Tuesday noon, November 17 __ Call Pam Erikson (402) 472-6809 < Congressional Democrats meet meet for dinner with Clinton LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — President-elect Clinton hosted his first sit-down with Demo cratic congressional leaders Sunday, hoping to forge agreement on how to break Wash ington gridlock and push through a quick action agenda. “We’ve got a big job to do and we’ve got to do it together,” Clinton said as Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, House Speaker Tom Foley and House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt headed to Little Rock for a dinner with Clinton. It was their first meeting since Clinton’s victory; the opportunities were big, since this marks the first lime Democrats will have control over both the White House and Congress in 12 years. Clinton, out for his morning jog, declined to outline specific priorities he planned to map out with Democratic congressional lead ers, instead promising a full report at a Monday news conference with them. Clinton and his aides have talked of a 100-day agenda for economic and social matters they felt went neglected over the past decade, but even before Sunday night’s dinner, Mitchell downplayed expectations for how quickly Congress might move. “I am not one to subscribe to this 100-day deadline business,” Mitchell said on NBC TV’s “Meet the Press.” “I think it’s an artificial deadline estab lished for no purpose other than giving definition ... to a sense of urgency about action,” Mitchell said. “And so I don’t use any particular time framc for when we should or should not act.” Still, Mitchell said he would tell Clinton he’s “right on track” by making economic revival his lop priority. Clinton plans to make a short-term eco nomic stimulus package his No. 1 objective, including expanded investment tax'eredits hoped to spark job crcation. Other parts of i t Clinton can do alone by executive order, such as speeding up federal dollars for high way projects that would create jobs. The bulk of Clinton’s long-term eco nomic plan — a S20 billion annual invest ment in infrastructure, technology and com munications — relics on defense cuts and tax hikes on the wealthy that would require congressional action. During his campaign, Clinton also pledged to seek quick action on family leave legislation that President Bush twice vetoed. Some legislation — such as complicated and controversial health care reform — Clinton has merely talked of getting to Con gress within 1 (X) days. Professor focuses on tension * * Sociology chairwoman says large classes create strain, communication problems By Keri Brabec Staff Reporter Students must establish stronger links to the university community, the chairwoman of the sociology department said Friday. Helen Moore spoke as part of the Theology for Lunch series, which focuses on critical value issues at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. The university community is not a group of people who arc similar, Moore said. “Some students think it is a huge impersonal group of 25,(X)G,” she said. While some students, faculty and staff have similar abilities and goals, Moore said, their ideas are diverse. They struggle over their differences, which produces tension on cam pus, she said. Classroom communication compounds the problem for many students, Moore said. “When there isn’t a full array of voices, distortion occurs,” she said. “In the classroom, many students arc intimidated by asking ques tions, so then they only get one-way informa tion from the teacher.” Classroom lectures are a disadvantage to students, Moore said. “I want to get students talking to teachers,” she said. “We need a revolutionary approach.” It would be ideal if students could attend seminars with 15 to 20 other students instead of lectures with 200 to 300 students, Moore said, but that is impossible. “We need to bring the principles and values of an active education to the students,” she said. “This will cause the students to rethink their values and why they arc here as students.” The honors program and integrated studies arc two programs in which students are encour aged to work with a faculty member and think about why they arc at the university, Moore said. More such programs arc needed, she said. The new admissions policy, which aims to reduce the number of UNL students who drop out after their first year, is a cause for concern, Moore said. While some students don’t have the skills to succeed at UNL, she said, others simply don T feel a$ though they arc a part of the university community. Others don’t want to be responsible for their learning, she said. “1 am concerned about omitting any student from higher education,” Moore said. The final session of Food for Thought this semester will be Nov. 20 on East Campus with UNL Chancellor Graham Spanicr speaking. — 1 ■ ■— ■■ — Nebraskan Editor Chrl* Hoptensperger Art Director Scott Maurer .. 472-1766 General Manager Dan Shattll Managing Editor Kris Karnopp Production Manager Katherine Pollcky . FAX NUMBER 472-1761 .-lJJJ? Di?cy N*{*jJ8ha'HUSPS■ 144080) is published by the UNL Publications Board. 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